Social recommendations like Facebook likes, +1s on Google+, etc. are called social signals.
Social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been elevating the importance given to social signals as part of its ranking algorithm for several years now.
Note: Google encourages website owners to build their social presence as a long-term investment to drive qualified traffic, rather than aiming for short-term benefits like search ranking placement. Google’s own head of the web spam team Matt Cutts has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to social signals, as social trends and relationships tend to change too quickly to fully map out. Without a reliable ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign more importance to social signals over other aspects of their search algorithm. In short, Google’s strategy is to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as websites that provide real value normally develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google wants to rank higher in its search results.
Social Signals – Which Sites Matter?
Social media sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to when measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most dominant social network in the world. It has been estimated that an average post on Facebook can reach over 100,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving droves of customers to your site, don’t be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your business strategy, as Google uses social data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems influence search engine rankings more than other social media sites.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next biggest social media site in the world, with over 500 million tweets sent out every single day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence online and places great emphasis on the authority of tweets posted to followers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every single day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google Plus
Google’s own social site naturally carries a significant degree of authority online, even if it is still a fledgling online community compared to sites like Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are starting to interact socially on Google+ every week. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big three listed above, there are a number of other social sites that provide important social signals, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit.
(Social media sites provide important signals that can affect your search rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Pay Attention To?
Search engines like Google and Bing track a number of social signals, including:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, shares, and likes you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets a site has, how influential the person retweeting your information is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many followers on GooglePlus your web page has amassed, number and authority of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on StumbleUpon, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious signals that can influence search rankings and traffic. These include desirable and undesirable factors, such as improving clickthrough rate [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by site reviewers [negative].
As a business owner, it’s important to not only grow your social media presence, but also to be able to track, measure and analyze your social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media to help improve your results online)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to gain insights into your company’s overall visibility on social media, spy on the competition, be alerted to impending crises, measure the impact of campaigns, and identify market opportunities. Additionally, social media monitoring can also provide vital data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific businesses, products, topics, or brands.
As a tool for business intelligence, the ability to track social activity on social media channels like blogs, forums, social networking platforms, micro-blogging platforms like Twitter, Medium, etc., message boards, video/photo sharing websites, and user-generated content (UGC) is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, often carried out by a cross-section of groups that include market researchers, marketing teams, digital reputation management (ORM) companies, sales teams, social engagement and community staff, and social media marketing agencies. Typically, smaller businesses don’t can’t afford to pay social media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately a number of technology providers have developed affordable tools that facilitate the active monitoring of a wide spectrum of social media channels, enabling you to identify consumer behavior around your products or brand allowing you to respond to conversations and engage with online users in various social media platforms.
We have written a detailed article listing over 30 social media measurement tools and technologies that are worth knowing about. More info:
(Can you track social signals effectively?)
In this article, we explore a simple social media tracking tool for WordPress and increasing your social media exposure online.
Introducing …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics WordPress Plugin
Plugin Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social analytics premium WordPress plugin that is designed to help you grow your social media influence in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – Social Metrics Pro measures how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. The site owner’s objective is to convert more red squares into greens.
(A system that any user can follow … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. Posts with highest number of shares are colored green. Posts with low social media activity display amber or red.
The developers of Social Metrics Pro tested their plugin on a network of 2,000+ sites over a period of 3 months. During this period, all they focused on was turning the “reds” to “greens” and then keeping their metrics on “green”. From these tests, they noticed that their top 10 best performing sites saw an improvement of up to 360% more traffic, 410% more keywords ranked in the first page of Google and they also experienced a 310% increase in revenues.
(According to the plugin developers, focusing on improving your social media marketing can result in better search engine rankings, more traffic and more revenue!)
Learn more here:
Plugin Benefits
Here we have listed just some of the many benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress Dashboard on your site:
Quick And Simple To Install And Use. Be Up And Running In Minutes.
SocialMetricsPro is very easy to install. Simply upload it to your Plugins folder via your WP admin user login and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your task is to convert more reds into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social signals so you know which social campaigns require investing more effort and which need to be better optimized.
Track Only Social Signals From The Networks You Care About
Social Metrics Pro allows you to track and monitor social media activity across leading social networks like Twitter, GooglePlus, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Pinterest, Digg, and LinkedIn directly from your WP dashboard.
SocialMetricsPro lets you easily answer questions like:
- Which social networks work best for my site?
- Which social campaigns are performing the best on these social networks?
- Which of my posts are the most popular on social media?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all this information is available on-demand, with just one click.
(SocialMetricsPro constantly monitors the sites that you care most about!)
Product Features
SocialMetricsPro provides many unique features to WordPress users. Here are a few of these:
- Quick and simple to install and use. Ready to use in minutes.
- Social Metrics Pro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality with external and built-in widgets. Social Metrics Pro shows the latest stats from your WordPress admin bar, display socially popular content on your sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click updating. Update Social Metrics Pro with a single click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update it manually. You can also choose to receive email notifications whenever new versions are released.
- Minimal hosting resources usage. Reporting is very quickly, consuming very little hosting resources. Reports also display the amount of time it took to retrieve information and the server memory used to gather and compile the data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching And Filtering Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort and filter the data as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by post type, post authors, category, or by publishing date.
- Export Data To Excel: You can export data to Excel for further analysis. Data can be exported in tab-delimited and comma-separated file formats, and imported to the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(SocialMetricsPro is very simple to use … just change all red squares into greens!)
User Testimonials
Here are just some testimonials plugin customers have published about Social Metrics Pro:
”Our entire marketing strategy relies on social media. Each post on the site has viral potential, but we needed one place to see which social networks are performing the best for us…We went ahead and got the PRO Version of Social Metrics.” Syed Balkhi, Founder of List25 and WPBeginner.com
***
”Social Metrics is one of the recipes for Social WordPress. You can integrate it quickly and easily on your WordPress site to view your performance on social networks” Jean-Francois Arseneault, Arseneault Consultation (WordCamp Montreal 2011)
Useful Tips
Social Metrics Pro includes a practical, step-by-step guide showing you how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens).
Social Metrics Pro Plugin Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a no-risk, 60-day, 100% money-back guarantee.
Plugin Price
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This license option enables you to install SocialMetricsPro on 1 site only. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites License – This allows you to run SocialMetricsPro on unlimited domains that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: The cost of purchasing Social Metrics Pro depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The price above was current at the time this review was published. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the plugin developer when you visit the product website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Plugin Information
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Get The Plugin
As mentioned earlier, with the growth of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Google and Bing have started taking into account social signals when determining website ranking.
No website owner can afford to ignore how important social media is to their online success. SocialMetricsPro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives you immediate feedback on the success of your social marketing strategy and guides you how to improve your results.
Social Metrics Pro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress dashboard.
We recommend getting this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to save time and resources by focusing on under-optimized networks.
For full details, visit the plugin website: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
***
***